Healthy Habits

When I think of making healthy habits, excersice and eating fruits and vegetables comes to mind. But there is something else that I need to remind myself of: reading Gods truth is just as important for healthy living. 

When I think to the times that I struggled the most, it isn't my eating habits or lack of excersice that stand out. It's my emotional well being that was on the rocks. And how did those times get remedied? Seeking God, reading his word, and talking to Him in honesty and hope for the future. He has restored the hard times, to good. No one ever told me this life would be easy, and I'm aware that even if I am diligent in my pursuit of knowing God deeper, things won't always be sunshine and rainbows, but staying close to Him during the hard times and good will build my character and make me a healthier mother, wife, daughter and friend.

I'm renewing my commitment to healthier living - mind, body and spirit. I'm making a promise to myself and my family (and you, my friends), to stay on track with healthy eating, excersicing at least 30 minutes 6 days a week, and getting into Gods word every day, even if only for a brief time. With the change of the season I feel the need to put my focus back on being healthy, in all conceivable ways. Writing it here, I hope to be kept accountable.

So I put this to you, what are some ways you stay consistent in your health routines? Do you excersice at a certain time of day? Eat a set meal plan? (If you are inclined to a relationship with God,) do you read your bible at certain times if the day? Have reminders to pray or meditate on His word? How do you work towards a healthier you?

Thankful Thursday

This week's Thankful Thursday is brought to you by

Buckley's Cough Syrup.

This is what I am thankful for.

Both boys are over their colds, but mine lingers on. And it's a doozey. I ventured to call it a "man cold" yesterday, which Josh thought was hilarious. I am feeling a lot better today, after a good night sleep. But even at that, I only have the brain-power to be thankful for Buckley's.

Such is Our Life.

The last few nights Elliott has decided that sleeping through the night is not an option. He's been up every 2-3 hours crying LOUDly. We live in a fourplex, so while I'd love to just let him sort it out himself, I have 3 other families who could possibly be woken up by him when he does that.

I picked up an old wooden toddler bed, a few months ago, off the side of the road in our neighborhood, I've decided that now is the time to give it a sanding, and paint it and transition Elliott into it. When Thomas gets to have a sleepover at nana and papa's house, I've been putting Elliott in Thomas' bed, and he sleeps the whole night without a peep. So maybe the crib is too confining for him now. I'm nervous to let him be "free", but if it's what gets us through a night, I'll do it.

Of course, when you're getting inadequate sleep, you're bound to get sick. In this case, it's Josh and Thomas. Josh has a cough, and Thomas has Croup. Awesome. Our last week of spring break will have a bit of a different look than I'd planned now, because Croup is contagious. While it's not life threatening if passed on to another kid, it's just not good manners to let your children mingle with other children when they have something nasty like Croup.

In other news, I seem to have kicked my caffeine dependency. From the events of last weekend, I wasn't really into eating or drinking a whole ton, and that meant coffee was off my list too, especially because coffee can be quite hard on my intestines on a good day. When I was already having intestinal discomfort, I didn't want to do anything to add to it. I still miss coffee, but I think that's more of a habitual sort of "this is the time I used to drink my morning cuppa." I don't really crave the caffeine, and I found my energy might actually be a little bit more abundant.

And to add some colour to this post, have a look at a cake I made for my sweet niece's 1st birthday! It was a lot of fun to do, and it was tastey!

Belated Thankful Thursday

Sorry about yesterday not getting a Thankful Thursday. Here's a quick update as well as a shorter Thankful Thursday, Friday edition!


To update on my health from last weekend, all I can say is, I had no idea your body went through so much during anaphylaxis. I kind of thought I'd just bounce right back and feel back to normal at least by Monday, but here we are 5 days later and I still don't feel very great. My week had it's ups and downs, of course, some days I felt better than others. Wednesday and Thursday were by far the best, with only one (as I call them) "intestinal flare up", on Wednesday. Thursday came with an abundance of energy, and I thought I'd better capitalize on that burst, so I tackled our indoor storage space that was badly overcrowded, and did a bunch of cleaning I hadn't felt up to during the previous days. Well, enter the backfire. Around 4pm I crashed, hard. With another big, bad and excruciating "intestinal flare up". I went for a hot shower, which was limited because I'd done some laundry recently (doh!), and tried to take a nap. Operative word being Try. I was just in too much discomfort. Ugh.

I started to feel a bit better before our bible study group came over, and we were having a games night, so that was a lot of fun and also distracted me from any lingering discomfort. I don't feel as good, so far today, as I did Wednsday or Thursday, but there are things to do, so the show must go on. I will just have to remember to take a few breaks here and there to hopefully keep the pain away. Also, I had an epiphany last night and thought maybe Pepto Bismol would be of great assistance to my insides. Let's hope!


Thankful Thursday (Friday Edition):


1. Very Very Very Sympathetic little boys. They are full of gentle hugs and kisses for mommy, which of course helps me feel better.

2. Great friends. A lot of my friends have checked in with me to see how I'm doing, and that makes me feel so loved. Thank You friends!

3. Thomas the Train. Can seriously stop a meltdown in 5seconds flat.

4. My Sweet Sweet neice, Emma. She's almost a year old, and I can't believe how fast this year has gone. She is such a funny, stubborn, adorable, kissable little person, and I couldn't love her more if I tried. I'm working on her birthday cake the next few days. I can't wait to show you all.


That's all I've got time for right now, the boys are "soooooo hunnnnnnnnnnnnnngry" so I'd better get them a second breakfast!

Saturday Excitment

*warning, there may be some graphic information in this post.

Well, that was not quite how I envisioned my Saturday going...

Mr husband stayed home with the boys while I went out and ran a few errands. Picked up a shirt, went to Walmart, tried on some clothes there, but while I was in the check out line I started to feel overwhelmingly nauseous. It came on so suddenly I considered putting my items down and making a break for the bathroom. The wave of nausea seemed to ebb a little, so I continued waiting in the checkout line. I noticed my palms began to get itchy, and I thought that was quite strange.

I paid for my items, and high tailed it to the van. The fresh air felt good and sort of eased the nausea again. But when I got to the van, I once again was overwhelmed, and ended up getting sick into a bucket we had in the van. I was kind of freaking out at that point, wishing I'd just stayed home because this was really scary. And then I noticed my tongue was hurting. It felt like pins and needles. My hands got itchier, and began to swell. I thought I'd better hit the road and fast so I could make it home before I got sick again. I didn't make it. I had to pull over and got sick again. There was a very bad pain in the center of my chest, and I started to panic, thinking I was having a heart attack or something. I tried to get home again, but had to pull over because I was so scared. I called 911 and an ambulance took me to Surrey Memorial Hospital.

The paramedic told me I was having an allergic reaction to something, but that he would take good care of me. He gave me Benadryl. We made our way to the Hospital and I was feeling less nauseous, but I was really swelling up and getting itchy all over. My tongue was swelling. I was also feeling a lot of bowel cramps, and I felt I really needed to get to a bathroom.

Once at the hospital, they got me into the ER ICU and got me set up with an IV. One nurse was referring to me as a "cherry tomato" because I was so red all over. I convinced her to help me to the bathroom, but I started to get really light headed there and couldn't breath. I just remember everything was splotchy bright white and the air felt really really cold while I tried to gulp it in. I made it back to the bed, but just barely, someone said I was cyanotic and they gave me a shot of epinephrine, and an oxygen mask.

Things are kind of blurry from there, I remember asking to call my husband, and then I sort of dozed in and out of consciousness, a Doctor came to see me, medicine was added to my IV, and then I dozed again, and my parents were there. I felt super dopey, I think that was from the benadryl. And very cold and jittery, from the epinephrine. My parents stayed for a little while. My poor mother had to help me use the bathroom. We noticed there might be blood in my expulsion. The nurses didn't seem too concerned by that.

I was held in the hospital for several hours, they wanted to make sure it didn't happen again. When the Doctor came to release me, he gave me a prescription for an Epi Pen, and told me I needed to follow up with an allergist. He explained to me that this was a very serious reaction, and if I had waited much longer to call, I could've died.


Josh has me on "house arrest" until we get the Epi Pen. I got a pretty decent amount of rest last night, though I was up quite a bit with bowel cramps. I'm feeling pretty weak overall. I'm afraid to eat anything. The boys are being very gentle with mommy. I sure wish I had a clue as to what could've caused this, I don't have any known allergies, so it's really strange that this just happened out of the blue. Praying for answers, and to feel like myself again.

I've written this for memory, mine is terrible and I will want to recall the details later on. Also, in case anyone experiences symptoms like this, maybe it'll help to have read this.